Services available for:
Bespoke Mentoring | Final Polish | Full Manuscript Review | How Strong Is Your Book Idea? | Opening Chapters
Alex Hammond has worked in publishing for most of his professional life, and there's nothing he likes more than talking to an author about their book, diving into the pages, and helping them identify any issues that might be holding their story back. Alex holds a BA (Hons) in American Literature with Creative Writing from UEA, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster, and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Southampton. After completing his MA, Alex worked at Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency, working with authors such as Zadie Smith, Philip Hensher, Nick Hornby, Sandi Toksvig and Joe Dunthorne.
Alex joined Cornerstones Literary Consultancy in 2014, managing editors, assessing new author enquiries, and scouting for agents. He went freelance in 2017, and his clients include Ipsita Deb (Winner of the Arvon Mushens Prize 2021) and Ravindra Rathee (True To Their Salt, Amberley Publishing, 2022). He teaches Publishing and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.
Testimonials:
"Alex Hammond's insights and recommendations have helped me to get my book on the path to publishable quality. His advice always navigated that fine line between firm, fair and sensitively put. I can't thank him enough." – Alexander Headley-Brown, W&A Full Manuscript Review client
"Alex is a skilled and empathetic editor and mentor. His knowledge of both the creative writing, and publishing process has been invaluable. He is also skilled at being able to put across complex messages with the power of good examples. It means that with his help I have developed as a writer at the same time as improving my manuscript" – James Pearce
"I asked Alex to give me feedback about my 32,000-word outline of my work-in-progress. Alex provided me with amazingly accurate and pertinent feedback. He clearly read my outline in close detail, and completely understood what I was trying to achieve. His 3,000-word written report to me was just great - full of really meaty plot, character, and tension advice. He also did a mark-up version of my 32,000 outline - which was thankfully blunt and to the point. My face-to-face meeting with him, where we talked about my novel, was even more helpful; he was able to respond in a very constructive way to my many questions and requests for advice. I could not recommend him highly enough.” – Tom Irvine, author of Amy's Proof
“Alex is an amazing editor. I have everything I need to revise the manuscript.” – Craig Moloney
“After two years work on my first novel I was totally worn out but after receiving Alex Hammond's book report I was full of enthusiasm, motivation and raring to go on what I hope will be the last edit. His comments on what I'd done well and what could be improved were spot on and I'm more than happy to recommend him.” – Kim Brooke